Pea Wees

My love affair with peas continues. I was looking for pea recipes online and they seem to be rather thin on the ground. There are lots of recipes and meals that include peas, but not so many where they take centre stage. Pea wees can be served with salad, as a canape, a delicious picnic food and would be wonderful with the pea puree.

Someone else seems to like peas! For your amusement:

Make them!

Makes 8 meatball sized pea wees.

One cup of peas
chili flakes to taste
1/3 cup chick pea/ gram flour
4 spring onions
couple of mint leaves
one shallot
black pepper
level teaspoon baking powder
oil for frying

1. Finely chop the spring onion and shallot and add the other ingredients.
2. Heat up your oil- a couple of centimetres
3. Add an eggcup full of water and stir well. BLITZ IT!
4. Form them into balls an inch or so diameter.
5. When the fat is hot, drop them in until they are brown and put them on kitchen roll

o

Pea Green Potatoes

The sun is suddenly shining in London and I felt like spring time. This salad is a culmination of two of my "nevers" no longer being true.

Frozen veg is a lifesaver. However, I hated peas as a child and my frozen green of choice has long been spinach. I bought peas recently which I used in my delicious lentil kedgeree, which I will post another day. I don't think I have ever bought them before.

Secondly, after a childhood of spuds, I rarely buy them either. My mum was always keen on new potatoes and this weekend I think I finally grew up. They may even rate with mash as my spud of choice!

I ate pea puree with chicken and new spuds yesterday, and have combined it today with the leftover cold spuds. It is such a glorious zingy vibrant green, and the taste of the peas with mint seems to be the English spring in a mouthful. As I said to a friend- it's so good it could almost be served as a diabetic ice cream!


To make:
Everyone goes on about fresh peas, but I used frozen petits pois, 2 cups
Cream cheese (I used a value variety)- two heaped tablespoonfuls
Mild olive oil
Pinch of salt.
Spring of mint


You will need a blender of some variety- I used a stick blender in a bowl.



Put your peas and cream cheese in a deep bowl. The more de-frosted your peas are the easier this will be, and the fewer peas will jump out of the bowl- a real possibility if you're not careful! Add tiny drizzles of oil if blending is difficult as this will help  it come into a smooth paste. Add mint to taste- mine ended up obviously but not overwhelmingly minty and I used 4 or 5 large mint leaves. Add the salt to taste. Blitz until you are happy with the texture (this is like hummus- you can have lumps or you can have it super-smooth).

My peas were semi-frozen when I made it, so it did end up ice-cream like and quite moreish, and melted delightfully on my hot new potatoes.

With my quartered tiny new spuds mixed into my tupperwear this was delicious.

Moreover, this can be used as a dip for crudites, a spread (much in the way of hummus)- delicious with a bit of ham or bacon, or on canapes.